This invention relates to an apparatus for vibrating a member and, more particularly, to a desk top apparatus to clean a pen which has become clogged due to the drying or thickening of ink in the pen.
In the graphic printing art, use is made of lettering pens to record or print information on a recording medium such as paper. There are a number of these pens in commercial use including, for example, a Leroy pen made by the Keuffel and Esser Co., Morristown, N.J., a Rapidograph pen made by the Koh-I-Noor Co., Bloomsbury, N.J., and a Castell type pen shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,058. These pens are fountain type pens having an ink reservoir which is tapered to a thin wall, small diameter tube forming the stylus for applying the ink to the paper. Such styli have precision points and very fine clearances to permit capillary flow of the ink from the reservoir to the points.
One problem with these pens is that due to the close fit of the various parts, and the high "solids" content of the drafting ink, the pen points tend to clog even during use and almost invariably if the pen is unused for a few hours. Therefore, these pens have a cleaning plunger in the reservoir, which includes a cleaning wire that extends into the ink passageway interconnecting the reservoir and the lettering point. The plunger and wire are free to move within the reservoir and passageway for unclogging the latter.
Typically, a draftsman unclogs the pen by holding it in his hand and shaking it to move the plunger and attached wire back and forth in the reservoir and ink passageway. However, the ink hardens or thickens to such a great degree that it requires the draftsman to shake the pen rapidly and for an extended period of time to unclog it. While electromechanical vibrating means are known to shake the pen and unclog it, there is no convenient and relatively inexpensive vibrating apparatus which can be used by a draftsman to quickly unclog the pen.